Monitoring and alarm systems are known for purposes of continuously supervising one or more regions with respect to the presence of preselected conditions. For example, intrusion or burglar alarm systems are known for the purposes of monitoring a premises and detecting unauthorized entry therein. Other types of monitoring systems which are known include fire or gas detecting systems, or systems for the monitoring or control of air flow or illumination.
It has also been recognized that preferably such systems will have the shortest possible response times so as to signal the existence of the selected condition as quickly as possible without generating false alarms or false positives. Various approaches are known and have been used to address these issues.
For example, one approach has been to preprocess signals from ambient condition sensors. An example of such an approach has been disclosed and claimed in Tice U.S. Pat. No. 5,736,928, entitled "Pre-Processor Apparatus and Method" assigned to the assignee hereof. Another known approach contemplates altering degrees of filtering of signals received from ambient condition sensors. One form of this approach has been disclosed and claimed in Tice U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/120,444, filed Jul. 22, 1998 entitled "System and Method of Adjusting Smoothing", also assigned to the assignee hereof.
While known approaches have been found to be effective and useful in carrying out their purposes, there continues to be need for systems which can benefit from processing signals from multiple units which might be physically near where the ambient condition of interest is originating in the premises. Preferably such systems could provide shorter response times while minimizing false alarms without substantially increasing the manufacturing or installation costs thereof.